ptions to the rule.
(Aloud.) I told you that there was nothing to be gained from rearranging
my table.

MRS. G. (Absently.) What does the woman mean? She goes on talking about
Consequences--"almost inevitable Consequences" with a capital C-- for
half a page. (Flushing scarlet.) Oh, good gracious! How abominable!

CAPT. G. (Promptly.) Do you think so? Doesn't it show a sort of motherly
interest in us? (Aside.) Thank Heaven. Harry always wrapped her meaning
up safely! (Aloud.) Is it absolutely necessary to go on with the letter,
darling?

MRS. G. It's impertinent--it's simply horrid. What right has this woman
to write in this way to you? She oughtn't to.

CAPT. G. When you write to the Deercourt girl, I notice that you
generally fill three or four sheets. Can't you let an old woman babble
on paper once in a way? She means well.

MRS. G. I don't care. She shouldn't write, and if she did, you ought to
have shown me her letter.

CAPT. G. Can't you understand why I kept it to myself, or must I explain
at length--as I explained the farcybuds?

MRS. G. (Furiously.) Pip I hate you! This is as bad as those idiotic
saddle-bags on the floor. Never mind whether it would please me or not,
you ought to have given it to me to read.

CAPT. G. It comes to the same thing. You took it yourself.

MRS. G. Yes, but if I hadn't taken it, you wouldn't have said a word.
I think this Harriet Herriott--it's like a name in a book--is an
interfering old Thing.

CAPT. G. (Aside.) So long as you thoroughly understand that she is old,
I don't much care what you think. (Aloud.) Very good, dear. Would you
like to write and tell her so? She's seven thousand miles away.

MRS. G. I don't want to have anything to do with her, but you ought to
have told me. (Turning to last page of letter.) And she patronizes me,
too. I've never seen her! (Reads.) "I do not know how the world stands
with you; in all human probability I shall never know; but whatever I
may have said before, I pray for her sake more than for yours that all
may be well. I have learned what misery means, and I dare not wish that
any one dear to you should share my knowledge."

CAPT. G. Good God! Can't you leave that letter alone, or, at least,
can't you refrain from reading it aloud? I've been through it once. Put
it back on 'he desk. Do you hear me?

MRS. G. (Irresolutely.) I sh-sha'n't! (Looks at G.'s eyes.) Oh, Pip,
please! I didn't mean to make you angry--'Deed, I didn't. Pip,